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MP to meet Minister over post office closures
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| MP Gordon Marsden |
Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden has stepped up his efforts to have the proposed closure of sub-Post Offices in his constituency reviewed.
Mr Marsden has already written in strong terms to Post Office Chief Executive Alan Cook with detailed arguments for reviewing the proposed closures and Post Office Minister Pat McFadden MP has agreed to meet with him this week.
Mr Marsden said "I know people feel very strongly as do I about these proposals and so I'm glad the Minister has agreed to meet with me to discuss them.
"I'll be pressing him on the points I made in my strongly worded letter to Post Office executives that I sent last month.
"My submission to the consultation takes into account the correspondence I've had from groups locally including the local Age Concern and also my constituents. The St Anne's Road store has both some of the highest usage figures.
"When I met with Post Office executives in February to discuss their closure plans I left them in no doubt as to how strongly we feel about this in Blackpool. I highlighted the impact on financial access for older people and pensioners and travel implications of their plans to close the St Anne's Road post office - which is also a potential factor in Layton. Some of the Post Office's regular customers are vulnerable, older or disabled people and the high usage statistics for the St Anne's Road store show it is valued by the local community."
Mr Marsden last met with the Post Office Minister Pat McFadden when he questioned him on the WH Smith franchise agreement which saw the Crown Office counters move from Abingdon Street to Bank Hey Street last year.
Mr Marsden said: "I am continuing to press the Minister and the Post Office Chief on the damaging consequences of the move to Bank Hey Street especially for disabled customers. I have been contacted by people who have been unable to use the counters in the basement of the WH Smith branch because the lifts were out of order - I will be telling the Minister that when I visited the store recently things had not improved."
Mr Marsden dismissed the Tory opposition day debate in Parliament last week as a political gimmick. He said: "The Tory motion had no alternative proposals and failed to mention or to match the Government's commitment of £150 million a year to maintain the Post Office network. Without this money from Government the network would collapse. Don't forget that 3,500 post offices were shut down under the last Tory government, and with no supporting financial packages for the remainder".
7:30pm Monday 24th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: JohnW, Lincs on 6:37am Tue 25 Mar 08
To their own cost, and to the cost of many other well used viable Post Offices throughout the UK, local action groups are finding that no matter how watertight a case they put forward it is ignored and their branch is closed. This fight cannot be won on a local level!
Underused unviable Post Offices are being left open whilst well used well used profitable Post Offices are being closed.
Local groups are now getting together to get the true message out to the nation and to stop the closure of well used viable Post Office Branches.
Please take a look at the website www.postofficeclosur
es.org.uk/ which is the home of CAPOC (Communities Against Post Office Closures).
You can help by registering your own Local Action Group – even if your Post Office has already been closed -, www.postofficeclosur
es.org.uk/RegisterGr
oup.php , or even just contribute to the forum.
Thanks
John W - CAPOC
To their own cost, and to the cost of many other well used viable Post Offices throughout the UK, local action groups are finding that no matter how watertight a case they put forward it is ignored and their branch is closed. This fight cannot be won on a local level!
Underused unviable Post Offices are being left open whilst well used well used profitable Post Offices are being closed.
Local groups are now getting together to get the true message out to the nation and to stop the closure of well used viable Post Office Branches.
Please take a look at the website www.postofficeclosur
es.org.uk/ which is the home of CAPOC (Communities Against Post Office Closures).
You can help by registering your own Local Action Group – even if your Post Office has already been closed -, www.postofficeclosur
es.org.uk/RegisterGr
oup.php , or even just contribute to the forum.
Thanks
John W - CAPOC
Posted by: CJ, Blackpool, Lancashire on 5:10pm Tue 25 Mar 08
Marsden is a self-serving hypocrite who doesn't care about Blackpool at all. I never believe anything from a Labour MP. He voted for closing post offices and now has the gall to claim he is fighting to save them. People of Blackpool South vote him out and get an MP that actually cares about Blackpool
Marsden is a self-serving hypocrite who doesn't care about Blackpool at all. I never believe anything from a Labour MP. He voted for closing post offices and now has the gall to claim he is fighting to save them. People of Blackpool South vote him out and get an MP that actually cares about Blackpool
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